Issues

Privacy and Security

Information technology lets people learn about one another on a scale previously unimaginable. Information in the wrong hands can be harmful. Scholars on this site consider problems of privacy, fraud, identity, and security posed by the digital age.

Discussing contextual integrity as a framework to design, evaluate, and craft regulation for privacy was the focus of last month’s symposium hosted by Princeton’s Center for Information Technology and Cornell Tech’s Digital Life Initiative. Read the summary of the report.

In the current digital economy, where consumers’ personal information is gathered, tracked, and used for corporate gain, Harvard professor Jonathan Zittrain and Yale professor Jack Balkin question how consumers can trust online services when there are no real guarantees that online platforms will not abuse that trust.

For a look at the current state of consumer data privacy, read up on recent works by TAP privacy experts. This post provides an overview of some recently published articles and blogs dealing with consumer data.

A new article by Danielle Citron and her co-author Robert Chesney provides the first comprehensive survey of the harms caused by “deep fake” technology, and examines the powerful incentives that deep fakes produce for privacy-destructive solutions.

Santa Clara University professor Eric Goldman offers a list of some of the identified errors and major ambiguities in the recently passed California Consumer Privacy Act. This post also provides additional resources for learning more about the bill.

Social networking websites are places on the Internet where people can connect with those who share their interests. Additionally, they can function as economic “platforms” that serve different groups of many users, including consumers, advertisers, game developers, and others.

"Those with unfettered access to your data, and especially those whose usage of your own data you cannot inquire about or limit, have power over you." — Alessandro Acquisti, Professor of Information Technology and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University